{"id":76,"date":"2023-06-06T18:07:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T18:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/?p=76"},"modified":"2023-06-19T17:42:58","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T17:42:58","slug":"england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/2023\/06\/06\/england\/","title":{"rendered":"England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

England is the physical country that Olivia is traveling to in accordance with the will of her father upon his death. More than its geographical location, I argue that the location carries different interpretations as demonstrated throughout the text of The Woman of Colour: A Tale. <\/em>England represents a foreign home where Olivia is not wholly accepted by society and her extended family. This keyword is important because it highlights the differences between societies in how they treat women, in regards to their class and race. While it is thought by the reader that Olivia will begin a new life across the globe, this will not be her final destination as Olivia navigates a newfound sense of independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the novel, Olivia attends a ball with the Mertons and Augustus (her betrothed), when she comes to a realization of the type of people that exist in the same social class that she has been thrust into. She reflects, \u201cYou will say I am very light-hearted to descant so largely on such frivolous subjects\u2026 but I am disappointed in England: I expected to meet with sensible, liberal, well informed and rational people, and I have not found them; I see a compound of folly and dissimulation\u2026\u201d (37). In this instance, the reader witnesses how Olivia thinks of herself and her assimilation, or lack thereof, into European society. Olivia\u2019s feelings towards her peers starkly contrast her initial feelings upon traveling and her immediate arrival to Europe. Her opinions of this social class begin to show her growing independence. Furthermore, this is arguably one of the first markers that England will not suffice as Olivia\u2019s permanent home moving forward; it is a moment of foreshadowing. Part of this conclusion relates directly to the fact that Olivia is a mixed woman. She is a free person of color in Jamaica with privileges granted by private acts as she was born to a black woman and white man. Because Olivia\u2019s father was a plantation owner, she witnessed more rights than others without such a status and title attached to their name. Debatably, Jamaica is a much more comfortably diverse society than England, meaning that Olivia will always be second to her mixed color in this foreign location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennifer Reed, a Faculty Fellow at Colby College, discusses in this particular project from her book, Moving Fortunes: Caribbean Women’s Marriage, Mobility, and Money in the Novel of Sentiment<\/em>, how the marriage plot and the transferring of wealth work collaboratively to benefit white English society over the Jamaican women where the money originates from (512). Her thesis reads,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cI focus on women within these marriages as the characters who enable the transfer of Jamaican wealth and onto whom the stigma of its origin is displaced. In each of these novels, Jamaican wealth moves unimpeded within English society and can be assimilated, but the woman who bears the wealth finds her own mobility limited within England\u201d (510). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This text relates to this particular keyword in the manner that what Reed argues clearly undermines the importance of Jamaica in the booming of England\u2019s own economy. For a character such as Olivia, this results in her toleration only for the benefit of her dowry rather than the building of her character and contributions for English society as a whole. This proves her alienation from society even with a white husband. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deven Parker, in her research article, \u201cPrecarious Correspondence in The Woman of Colour<\/em>\u201d, <\/em>highlights that Olivia, as a mixed woman, is unable to truly escape from the tropes she has been thrust into due to the politics and economics of the romanticism period (1). Her thesis reads,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cDeparting from readings that assert Olivia Fairfield’s ability to transcend her precarious situation and achieve autonomy, I demonstrate that the novel’s invocation of the transatlantic packet context in fact casts doubt on her ability to escape from or transcend her predicament. In refusing to provide a hopeful ending, the novel instead offers a powerful, pessimistic condemnation of racism and misogyny in England\u201d (135). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

To connect this theme to this particular keyword, I am suggesting that because Olivia is trapped, she will fall victim to the way England operates without the ability to ever gain full autonomy. Olivia will remain an outcast due to larger forces at work including racism and classism on the European island. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To relate this particular keyword to another primary text of this course, I take a specific look at Mary Prince in her novel. Within the introduction, the text reads, \u201cUnder the Yorke and Talbot judgment of 1729, slaves who were brought to England from the colonies remained property in England, but here [England] property law seems to contradict early \u2018civil rights\u2019 law\u2026\u201d (xvii).  It is clear that Mary Prince and Olivia have very different experiences with England, and that in Prince\u2019s situation, the culture actually works in her favor. I bring forward this perspective to demonstrate that not everyone found hardship upon arrival in the country, although I am not ignoring the fact that Prince did experience her fair share of difficulties in adapting to the culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

England is a complicated country in relation to Olivia Fairfield, and other black women such as Mary Prince who recounted their experiences during this same time period. Whether it is the nuances of the passing of generational wealth, being a mixed woman in a white society, or lack of cultural awareness (whether one is white, black, or mixed), England was a hard to navigate melting pot during the romanticism period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related Page Numbers in The Woman of Colour<\/em>: 54, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 68, 69, 70, 71, 84, 89, 97, 111, 148, 159, 168, 180, 184, 185, 187, 188, 189<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parker, Deven M. \u201cPrecarious Correspondence in The Woman of Colour.\u201d Essays in Romanticism<\/em>, vol. 27, no. 2, 2020, pp. 135\u201352.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reed, Jennifer. \u201cMoving Fortunes: Caribbean Women\u2019s Marriage, Mobility, and Money in the Novel of Sentiment.\u201d Eighteenth-Century Fiction<\/em>, vol. 31, no. 3, 2019, pp. 509\u201328.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself.” The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself. London: F. Westley and A. H. Davis, 1831.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Woman of Colour, A Tale<\/em>. [1808]. Ed. Lyndon J. Dominique. Broadview, 2008. Print.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

England is the physical country that Olivia is traveling to in accordance with the will of her father upon his death. More than its geographical location, I argue that the location carries different interpretations as demonstrated throughout the text of The Woman of Colour: A Tale. England represents a foreign home where Olivia is not wholly accepted by society and her extended family. This keyword … Continue reading England<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3000,"featured_media":91,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,15],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jamaica","tag-outcast"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",1920,1278,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",1127,750,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",481,320,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0-768x511.jpg",720,479,true],"large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0-1024x682.jpg",720,480,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0-1536x1022.jpg",1536,1022,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",1920,1278,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",1127,750,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",481,320,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",140,93,false],"canard-post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",870,579,false],"canard-featured-content-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",751,500,false],"canard-single-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",1154,768,false],"canard-logo":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/files\/2023\/06\/England-2.0.jpg",135,90,false]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"amowers","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/author\/amowers\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"England is the physical country that Olivia is traveling to in accordance with the will of her father upon his death. More than its geographical location, I argue that the location carries different interpretations as demonstrated throughout the text of The Woman of Colour: A Tale. England represents a foreign home where Olivia is not…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3000"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/womanofcolourkeywords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}